The philosophy of Fandom (Transformative Fandom)
#1
I've been looking for something to explain this strange world we find ourselves in.

The Big Bang (or any) Fandom

And I came across thie reddit post which had been shared on Tumblr which goes a long way to exploring this.

"Note: The following has hella generalization. If you feel like this doesn't apply to you, congratulations, let me slow clap it out.

Large fandoms--things like Doctor Who, or Supernatural, or Star Trek, or any superhero comic--tend to have unique and separate sides to them: curative and transformative.

Curative fandom is all about knowledge. It's about making sure that everything is lined up and in order, knowing how it works, and finding out which one is the best. What is the Doctor Who canon? Who is the best Doctor? How do Weeping Angels work? Etc etc. Curative fandom is p. much the norm on reddit, especially r/gallifrey.

Transformative fandom is about change. Let's write fic! Let's make art! Let's make a fan vid! Let's cosplay! Let's somehow change the text. Why is Three easier to ship, while Seven is more difficult? What would happen if ______? Transformative fandom is more or less the norm on tumblr. (And livejournal, and dreamwidth, and fanfiction websites, and...)

Here's the big thing: there's a gender split. Find a random male fan, and they'll probably be in curative fandom. Pick a random transformative fandom-er, and they'll probably be female. Note that this is phrased in a very particular way--obviously there's guys who cosplay and write fic, obviously there's women who don't. But men tend to be in the curative fandom, while transformative fandom is predominately women--and/or queer people, POC, etc. Why? Because the majority of professionally-made media is catered towards a straight white male demographic, leaving little room for 'outsiders.' Outsiders who, if they want to see themselves in media, have to attack it and change it--hence slash fic, hence long essays claiming that Hermione Granger is black, hence canons (edit: slipped up, sorry. meant headcanons) about trans characters or genderqueer characters.

And then curative/male fandom tends to view most things that transformative/female fandom does with disdain. Why? Because, in their eyes, it devalues canon. Who cares about knowing about Tony Stark's lovers if somebody's gonna write a fic where Toni Stark is flying about? Their power is lessened. Scream of the Shalka is unambiguously not canon--but it doesn't have to be in order for me to read and enjoy a 30k fic where the robotic Master was secretly in the TARDIS during Nine and Ten's time and they shagged behind the scenes. Canon? No, but who gives a shit?

Also, as transformative fandom tends to be an outsider looking in, they're much more likely to analyze the work from a queer/PoC/neurodivergent/gender perspective. If I come to /r/gallifrey and start to talk about how 'In the Forest of the Night' had a questionable portrayal of mental health/autism, I get blank stare. If I go on tumblr, I get a conversation. This is also where the 'overreacting, shrieking SJW' trope plays in, either because of a redditor's misunderstanding of terms and therefore assuming that a mild critique is a scathing one, or because the tumblr user in question is young/inexperienced and jumping the gun.

So, there you have it: /r/gallifrey's bashing of reddit is part of a larger split in how men and women tend to enjoy fandom, and a lashing against how fanfiction/related things addresses fandom because it's not the right "kind" of fandom. And also because tumblr is popular with teenage girls, and there's nothing reddit loves more than shitting on whatever teenage girls like.

EDIT: I was not expecting that an enormous conversation would come from this, and certainly not that I'd be gilded, sent to /r/bestof, and /r/goldredditsays. So, uh, thanks! I was originally going to edit and respond to some comments I saw, but I ran out of room, so I wound up doing it over here. Thanks for all of your interest!" - LordByronic on reddit
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#2
A post on tumblr which I thought needed to be posted here:

"What is scary about transformative fandom is that it’s a place where young women love their media without reservation, and where they can make stories for themselves. That’s why as a culture we’ve decided that transformative fandom is weird and gross and morally wrong, and that’s why all the articles in the world explaining that transformative fandom is a totally legitimate way to interact with a text aren’t really making a dent in the never-ending stream of repulsed investigations of fandom. Because fandom is the province of young women and, culturally, we find young women terrifying."
— Why we’re terrified of fanfiction - Vox (via tiffreblogsfandom)

The article that started it all...

http://www.vox.com/2016/6/2/11531406/why...teen-girls
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#3
I partcularly like this quote:

"My preferred explanation is the idea that the vast majority of what we watch is from the male perspective – authored, directed, and filmed by men, and mostly straight white men at that. Fan fiction gives women and other marginalised groups the chance to subvert that perspective, to fracture a story and recast it in her own way. … It often feels as if there isn’t much space for difference in the dominant cultural narratives; in fandom, by design, there’s space for all."

Fan Fiction started out as exclusively female but more males seem to be getting involved. Love the words TRANSFORMATIVE FANDOM.
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#4
Hu, it's interesting to see it put down in words and described. I'm very much in the "transformative" side of things but then it's split with the "curative" side almost down the middle in some fandoms... I'm not a huge fan of massive changes. Especially if I truly like a character it two... I don't want to change them. I'm usually not a fan at all of adding extremely non canon things... You get the point. And it's odd because I'm a female POC... But I tend to not look at stuff that way when it comes to things in the media. I don't care if a show doesn't have a black girl on it... Idk what that means... But if the show is good or I like someone on it, I don't care. 

And you would think that I would automatically start changing stuff or adding characters. I prefer to take the characters that exist and then changing the canon to make them be together. That's literally what I use gang iron for, it's to make a ship I like canon. Otherwise I go with whatever canon is doing and I'm fine with it. For me I guess it's mostly entertainment and I started watching because I enjoy the show and or its characters.

Take The Walking Dead, I am a huge nerd when it comes to this show and it's background and characters and what happens in comic book canon vs tv show canon... I accept the show and it's flaws never used to ship on the show... Until bethyl happened. Then I was a goner, then I started to look at things a certain way after they killed off half my ship (that tech never was canon...meh) my interest in the show faltered a lot. I still pay attention to it and I know what's happened but it's not as exciting as it used to be as clearly the writing and creativity are lacking these days for it. 

But what I did, I wrote fanfic for that show, to fix what canon didn't do in the since of one ship, I didn't gender bend or race bend... I just changed canon to make a ship happen. 

It's the same with TBBT, I write to "fix" canon and make a ship happen. Now I'll occasionally find the show still funny and I still love the main character (s), but I can't sit and watch because they added Amy... I just can't! I can let a lot of things go... But not her. Awful awful her... 

But yeah... That's what I write and read fanfic for! To fix that mess... 

Anyway, it's really interesting and makes you think TBH. Why do you do or not do/think or not think the third things that one does for fandoms and how they feel about canon. 

What it said above about some stuff is absolutely true! And I commend folks who are that passionate about changing things and I'm all for it... 

I'm just here because I want two fictional characters to kiss... If it also happens to include an awesome plot and writing... Well that's just cake. 

I'll stop here before I start ranting too much. This post is also just... It's all over the place but I'm
Intrigued and it's a very interesting article. Fandom is interesting and over the last 15 years of my life (pretty much half my life) has been involved in some fandoms of some sort... It's an interesting and sometimes exhausting world to live in. But it's fun and you meet people and if I have to be addicted to something... Rather it be a couple of fictional characters.
Bitches be crazy. 
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#5
I always swore I'd never read fan fiction, thought it was for tweens and kind of embarrassing. Now I write it myself!! and I wanted to think about my own change of heart as much as anything. That article was just the first one I've seen about the subject. One of the things that stuck out for me was that fan fiction is a hobby. This is how I see it, its a creative thing that I enjoy. An outlet.

Prady was once quoted as saying he disliked fan fiction and Lorre said he didn't understand shipping. How things have changed. Moralo runs things as if he's writing fic and not a sitcom. He even had the audacity to include fan fiction in the plot. Amy writing fan fiction about Sheldon which suggests to me that he's reading canon fics. And Amy writing 'real life' fics about her won boyfriend??? How's that work?
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